MISS JEAN STEVENSON

Evening Star, Issue 17925, 22 March 1922, Page 7

MISS JEAN STEVENSON

TRAVELLING OFFIOEII OF HATIOMAL Y.IV.C.A. HOW IN DUNEDIN. It was quite inspiring to one _ oi the ‘Star's’ interviewers to meet tins energetic lady yesterday and hear her talk about the big work to which she has voted l her heart and soul. Miss Stevenson is a native of Dunedin, but she graduated in Australia, where she spent eleven years in the service of the Young Womens, Christian Association. Then sho_ studied the work for two years in America, and for the past three years she has been the travelling officer for the National lioatcl, specialising in industrial work. . . This is Miss Stevenson’s first official visit to New Zealand. Her mission is to visit the various centres and advise and help in . the movement begun twelve years a S°““ ,lc work of training for professional ec*»;c I and of helping employers by organising welfare clubs'within the staffs, thus doing good to both interests, since the workers are lifted to an efficient standard, and employers can get better service from workers who are healthy and' contented. are passed when “ Anybody Aunt can do such work. It calls for trained women, and Miss Stevenson is one of these in the full meaning of the term. But we cannot do better than let Miss Stevenson speak for herself. This is what she says: “Beginning at the very beginning ol the woman movement ns a service agency concerned with everything that belongs o the welfare of women, the Y.W.L.A. mis been a growing and developing movement all through the more than sixty years of its existence. The new conditions _crcatca by the coming of women into business and professional life made necessary new forms of sendee on the part of an agency that represented the Christian community s care for the health, development, and happiness ol women and girls. Especially there has been a forward movement j during the last twelve years. About that time the associations of Australasia formed a federation which linked thorn up with the national associations of some thirty other countries through the World s Committee in London. _ “It is as the representative _ of this national movement that I am visiting New Zealand, there being also _ three other travelling secretaries, one'being the general f'Ccertary and the .other Miss Marjorie Black (wel known in Dunedin, who specialises on work for adolescent girls. The national secretaries are lent to the various towns in Australasia as occasion arises to strengthen the local work in any way. “These past years have established the association as that organisation in the community which specialises on all matters concerned with the welfare of women. During the war the Government of the United States invited a representative of the Y.W.C.A. to consult with them as to methods of housing their munition workers, for they realised that sixty years of experience was valuable, and the most successful projects were worked out on the advice of the Housing Department. In England the Government and large plants, in the face of a crisis, found it necessary in many cases to hand over the matter oi housing and feeding women munition workers entirely to the Y.W.C.A. Everything that concerned the care of women relatives of soldiers, and to a very large extent the recreation hours of soldiers in the community were cared for by the American Y.W.C.A. But the story of the war work of the Y.W.C.A. in America and England and Franco, thrilling though it is, is not perhaps the most interesting part of the story to your readers. Loss exciting, but not less valuable, is the story of the growth of the | movement in New Zealand and Australia. Auckland possesses the finest building in Australasia, and the association _ has pioneered health work for women in a way that is done nowhere else nearer than Honolulu. Christchurch, by the generosity of a business firm, has been put in possession of a building to bo used_ as a hostel and community centre at Kaiapoi, and is also pioneering organised girls’ work in Lyttelton, besides its varied work in the city. The new associations in Perth and” Newcastle have enlisted the young people of these cities in a marvellous way round the idea! of service, and truly represent a movement of young people for the service. of young people. In these cities the financial responsibility is largely undertaken by the young people, for the movement is their own —they are directing it. The association in Melbourne has received the support of ibo public amazingly in the last ten years, and great growth has boon made possible. Its activities may he divided into what may be called “ service agencies” and “ organised young people’s work.” Under the former are comprised two large hostels ; for business t girls, a well-equipped house j for people travelling, a large cafeteria which provides at reasonable cost meals for 600 business girls per day, a business girls’ club in another portion of the town, and a “service hut” in an industrial district which provides hot food for factories. Under the organised work come the “ extension clubs,” a self-governed organisation of 500 girls, who carry out a programme of education, recreation, and social service in their leisure hours {most of them are industrial workers) that has become a feature in the life of the city. Speaking at a banquet given to me _on leaving Melbourne, one of the girls said; I ‘ Some gilds do not like to say they work ] —they arc ashamed of their work—but , the club girls have a different spirit; they have learned that it docs not matter | what your particular work in the world | is so long a 3 y°n do it well.’ ” I Asked the time-honored question as to ] whether the provision of clubs with oppor- 1 tunities for education and recreation for girls has anything to do with the scarcity of girls for domestic service, Miss Stevenson said emphatically: “No. The scarcity of girls for domestic work is due to quite other causes, and the Y.W.C.A. is no more a factor in them than the school or the Church. So long as domestic service is without prestige, so Jong as there is a failure to recognise the worker s right to her own life outside working hours, just so long will this form of work bo the last sought for. The fact is that bo many other avenues have been created for women’s work —so much of the work done formerly within the home is now done outside” (i.e., making of clothing and foodstuffs, etc.)-—that the ‘domestic work’ outside of the homo competes with _ that done inside the home, and until (society s attitude to the latter is reorganised the outside tends to win. _ Nevertheless, _ I hove known many cases in smaller cities where the fellowship and opportunities which the Y.W.C.A. provided, irrespective of class, supplemented the isolation of the life of the girl in the home, and kept many a girl at that kind of work when eh© would otherwise have left it and gone to something elsc_ for sheer lack of friendship and recreation opportunities.” Asked as to modern tendencies amongst girls, Miss Stevenson said: “ I shall probably be speaking about that in eorao public gatherings. I have a tremendous faith in the modem girl. I have known in my own experience how eho rallies to the call of service for others, and to the degree that our association can express itself as the practical working out of the ideals of young women for the service of themselves and others, to that degree it has the greatest future before it. _ In one of tiro recently organised associations tho members worked their idea of_ membership thus: 1 The association desires to bo used by the community in co-operative service for young women; therefore its activities are open to all girls and women regardless of their affiliation with tho association as members. The members of the association are thus groups which, being in sympathy with the purpose _of the association, desire to become active agencies in the carrying out of its programme in tho community, and part of a great world movement of young women which is helping to rebuild the world on the permanent foundation of Christian democracy.’ This represents the spirit of the association to-day.”